To stop the summer math drain, it’s important that our visual learners stay fluent on basic math facts and operations. Take a look at your child’s school papers, so you know what they’ve been working on and what they need to practice. Do they need to drill basic addition and subtraction skills, work on number bonds, practice multiplication and division, understand fractions, etc.?

Fun ways to do math

• Get cooking with the kids. They learn to count, measure and divide. Counting eggs, measuring dry ingredients and having “real life” opportunities to experience fractions are far more stimulating ways of learningmath than seeing those concepts on worksheets.• Have the kids work on math apps for 20 – 30 minutes per day.Apps are a great way to drill those basic math facts while keeping it fun.• Play math games. Most board games have math components, so get one out and have some family game time. Also, logic puzzles – like tangrams, pattern blocks, Sudoku, etc. increase the understanding of math conceptsand they’re lots of fun.• Flashcards. Have your child help make them. The act of writing the numbers and equations will increase comprehension.

For more ideas for keeping all that hard earned knowledge from the school year over the summer, get my eBook.

Educators say there are three basic learning styles; visual, tactile, and auditory. Research shows that 80% of children are both primarily visual and tactile learners. These kids need to see, touch and do in order to learn effectively.